Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday accused Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of telling lies to the state assembly and objected to his using the word "dalal", meaning middle man, on the floor of the House.
Yadav made the allegation referring to the chief minister's statement in the assembly on Friday in which he had the opposition was not concerned about the welfare of farmers but of 'dalals' (brokers) in agriculture markets.
"The way the chief minister is lying and the kind of language he is using in the assembly and the way people are joining Samajwadi Party in droves, the Bharatiya Janata Party will be swept out of power and the people will 'deploy' SP in the state in 2022," the SP chief claimed.
Akhilesh Yadav also doubted if any farmer's paddy crop was procured at the minimum support price in Uttar Pradesh and sought details of the crops procured on MSP.
"The chief minister said middlemen are not able to digest farmers' well- being. Such deception! Such a lie! Can anyone speak such lies in the House?" the SP president asked.
Refuting the official claims over procurement of crops on MSP, Yadav said, "I want to know from him (Yogi) if farmers from any of the districts, including, Gorakhpur, Maharajganj, Kushinagar, Deoria, Sant Kabir Nagar, Basti, Gonda and Faizabad are getting the MSP. Which district has got it?"
"We want to know how many farmers have got how much of the MSP," the former chief minister demanded to know.
Objecting to the alleged use of the word "dalal", Akhilesh Yadav declared Yogi Adityanath an outsider for Uttar Pradesh and said, "Can anyone imagine that the person whom the people of UP accepted as their chief minister is not a native of UP. He should thank the people of UP who accepted him, but see his language."
Akhilesh Yadav also criticised the BJP government for the rise in fuel prices, fundraising drives for Ram Mandir and delays in development projects.
He said the BJP government, to hide its failure on economic front, had hiked petrol, diesel prices and put burden on people, farmers, youth and it was sad and shameful that now the government was saying the price hike was for nation building
On collection of donations for the Ram temple at Ayodhya, the SP chief said, "In ancient Indian culture, there was no such thing as chanda (contribution), we have the culture of dakshina (offering). We are ready to give dakshina, will the BJP accept?"
"It will benefit people more if the chief minister starts speaking on development. He talks of expressways that were actually made by Samajwadi Party. Speaking of Purvanchal Expressway, firstly he said it would be ready by Diwali, then in New Year, now in April… who knows when it will happen."
He also criticised Yogi Adityanath for a past comment on opposition parties possessing "division in their DNA" in the aftermath of the Hathras incident.